Tony Horwitz takes on the lost horizons of what happened before the Pilgrims landed at that famous rock. Who really touched down on North America and what did they have to go through to get lost in the history books and in our psyches? He revisits the voyages of Eirik the Red, Columbus, De Soto, Coronado, Cabeza de Vaca and others who traversed and explored the continent. "A Voyage Long and Strange" is Horwitz at his best as he plumbs historical accounts, follows the trails, and gets lost in a wilderness of tourists, myths, and forgotten plunders. Lewis and Clark's expedition was a cakewalk compared to De Soto's and De Vaca's epic journeys across the south and southwest nearly 300 years earlier.
Which brings us back into the modern day vistas of Mexico's Sierra Madres through Richard Grant's "God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre." Grant's journey takes us into the heart of the narcos in a stubborn wide-eyed look at a region many don't get to see but after reading this we either don't want or can't wait to see. Its a region the Apache's retreated to well into the 20s, Pancho Villa ruled, Huston and Bogart romanticized, but not much seen or explored by sun worshipers looking to exchange dollars into cervezas. Grant rides into a major drug producing region surrounded by stunning vistas with the tenuous passport of knowing someone who knows someone. This is a travelogue that's difficult to put down.
